The 2001 UST Murder

The UST Murder that Abolished the ROTC
On the morning of March 18, 2001, 19-year-old Mark Welson Chua's body was found floating in the Pasig river, three days after he was reported missing. He was wrapped in a carpet, hog-tied, with his hands, feet, and face covered with cloth and duct tape.

Mark was a sophomore Mechanical Engineering student who became known for exposing the corruption and bribery in the Reserve Officers Training Corps of the UST in the school's official newspaper. His murder triggered public outrage, and urged the country's lawmakers to pass the Republic Act 9163 or the NSTP (National Service Training Program) Law, which abolished the then-existing ROTC system and gave college students a choice between the ROTC, the Literacy Training Service (LTS), or the Civic Welfare Training Service as a precondition for graduation.

SPOT.ph’s Top 10 Pinoy School Scandals

http://www.spot.ph/gallery/2210/spot-ph-rsquo-s-top-10-pinoy-school-scandals/article/51243#pid=40007 


NOTES:  Mark Chua's killer gets death by Elka Krystle R. Requinta
http://www.varsitarian.net/news/mark_chuas_killer_gets_death

2011 report on another packaging tape victim

August 2nd, 2011 
Suspected ‘salvage’ victim found
A man with three gunshot wounds, his mouth covered by masking tape and hands tied behind his back was found before dawn Tuesday in a grassy area on Visayas Avenue in Quezon City, a police report said. Police Officer 3 Gregorio Maramag of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said the victim had gunshot wounds in the head, in the back and in the right arm.

According to him, the body was found by a crew member of a fast-food restaurant on Visayas Avenue who heard gunshots just minutes earlier. The victim was found at 2:45 a.m. at the corner of Visayas Avenue and Road 10 in Barangay (village) Vasra.

The policeman said it was apparent that the victim had been tortured before he was killed. The man was described as between 35 and 40 years old, 5’3” in height, of slim build and with short hair. He was dressed only in a pair of denim pants.—Nancy C. Carvajal

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/35229/metrobriefs-72

victim's face wrapped with masking tape

"...at 12:45 a.m. of the following day, the body of a   man was found with  stab wounds in the back along Maximo Viola Street in Barangay Balingasa. The victim, Jonel Mamarinta, 21, was identified by his mother. Authorities found the body after a watchman received a call at the barangay hall reporting the discovery. Masking tape was wrapped around the face of the victim."

FULL REPORT BY JULIE M. AURELIO AT:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/204405/2-male-victims-of-brutal-killings-reported-in-qc

Suicide in SM Southmall

Nathaniel R. Melican,  Philippine Daily Inquirer  Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/175235/woman-jumps-to-death-in-las-pinas-mall

A woman who leapt to her death at a mall in Las Piñas City would have remained unidentified had it not been for a SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) card which the police found in her wallet.

The victim, Celedonia Aquino, 55, a widow living at Carmencita Village, Admiral Subdivision in Las Piñas, jumped from the third floor of SM Southmall at around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

“It’s an apparent suicide. We have witnesses who told us that she jumped from the third floor of the mall and that no one was there to stop her,” case investigator PO1 Ernesto Bautista Jr. told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

Aquino was rushed to Las Piñas City Medical Center but she was pronounced dead on arrival due to massive head and body injuries.

“When we searched her body, we found a wallet but there were no IDs in it. However, we found a SIM card where we found the contact number of a certain Alvin Aquino who turned out to be her son,” Bautista said.

He added that Alvin told them that his mother had been taking antidepressant drugs for an unspecified mental condition.

Five dead bodies in Quezon City

2 more bodies with torture marks found in Quezon City—police

By Nancy Carvajal, Philippine Daily Inquirer , January 25th, 2012
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/134191/2-more-bodies-with-torture-marks-found-in-quezon-city%E2%80%94police

Two more bodies bearing torture marks were found in different places in Quezon City on Wednesday, bringing to five the number of dumped bodies recorded by the city police in the last three days alone, police records showed.


Police Office 1 Alvin Quisumbing of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD-CIDU) identified the latest victims as Dereck Page, 25, of Moonstar St., Las Villas del Ciello Homes, Sunville Subdivision, Barangay (village) Culiat, Quezon City; and Gilbert Borja, 29, of No. 4 Ginintuang Landas St., Barangay Sta. Monica, Novaliches, also in Quezon City.

Quisumbing said the body of Page with multiple stab wounds was discovered by a gardener around 8 a.m. at a vacant lot not far from where he lived.

Page’s wife, Maria Cristina, told police she last saw and talked to her husband at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, when he went out of the house to gather condiments for the food they were cooking for dinner.

However, she said Page never returned since then.

Meanwhile, PO3 Gregorio Maramag said Borja was found dead at around 1:10 a.m. on Wednesday, at the corner of Ginintuang Landas and Tatlong Hari Streets in Barangay Sta. Monica.

Maramag said the victim’s body bore torture marks and had a gunshot wound in the back and multiple stab wounds in the right side of his body.

Three bodies bearing torture marks and signs of summary execution were found earlier in separate areas in Quezon City.

Inspector Elmer Monsalve, chief of the homicide investigation of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), expressed alarm over the discovery of several bodies in the space of a few days.

Monsalve said they were still establishing the motive for the killings but initial investigation showed the killings could be part of an ongoing “gang war.’’